New Paradigms and Trends in Quantitative Ecology

Dear Colleagues,

Science relies on logical thinking and on quantifying the relationships between the variables describing the objects under study. Therefore, science cannot be free of mathematics, and it is not surprising that within ecology, a subdiscipline called “Quantitative ecology” started to take shape through the methodological papers addressed to solve the problems of quantifying ecological relationships and communicating the results of the ecological studies. It is not surprising that “Quantitative Ecology” was and is dealing with more or less the same mathematical tools used in “complex systems analysis”, ecological systems being inherently complex: many variables cannot be measured with precision, and sampling and data collection always have a certain amount of uncertainty. In Ecology, mathematical analytical models can be applied in limited circumstances, leaving room for stochastic-statistical models and data analytical techniques that are often considered out of the “orthodox” statistical practice. Mathematics is always present in quantitative ecology, but “Quantitative Ecology” is not synonymous with “Mathematical Ecology”, nor with “Statistical Ecology”—two other well-known disciplines that are growing in the ecological scientific universe. “Quantitative ecology” could rather be considered synonymous with “Numerical Ecology”, which looks to include everything that has to deal with numbers. However, this is almost true, but not exactly true. We can say that “Quantitative Ecology” is not to be seen as a set of mathematical (logical, analytical, numerical) and statistical methods and tools, but rather as an attitude that looks for mathematical methods suitable to quantify specific phenomena and relationships. The aim of “Mathematical Ecology“ and “Statistical Ecology” should be different and addressed to explain why the suggested and or the used methods in Quantitative Ecology are supposed to be useful and to show how certain methods and models could be applied to quantify and model ecological relationships. This Special Issues assembles views on “Quantitative Ecology” as a vehicle to mathematical and statistical applications in Ecology.

Prof. Enrico Feoli
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Mathematics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.